Real Estate Rainmakers Vol. 6 – Ari Harkov
Real Estate Marketing Secrets from the Nation's Top Producers
Looking for powerful new real estate marketing strategies to grow your business? You’re in the right place.
Every week, CityBlast asks one of the world’s top agents to dish up their closely-guarded secrets to Realtor® marketing success in a ’21 Questions’ format. They’ll reveal powerful real estate agent marketing strategies, and help draw a roadmap to understanding exactly how to get to the top of the game.
Sound good? Without further delay, here’s one of the top 1,000 ranked Realtors® in the nation, Ari Harkov of the Harkov Lewis Team, with his top real estate marketing tips and tricks!
1) Tell us what market you work in, and how long you’ve been in real estate
I work in NYC, in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I received my license at the end of 2006 and began working in sales in early 2007.
2) Tell us how you got started in real estate?
I decided to get a license in 2006 as I was leaving an earlier career and unsure of what I wanted to do next. I had a bachelor’s in art history, liked design and architecture, and figured it couldn’t hurt to have a license as a life skill.
3) What drew you to the real estate industry?
The freedom to be my own boss, love of design and architecture, interest in working with people, flexibility, the ability to rise and fall based on my own hard work or failure.
4) When you began your career, what was your biggest challenge?
Getting clients. I was young and didn’t know the market but I also had no contacts. In the beginning, it was very difficult to build up a reputation and meet people in the market to buy or sell real estate.
5) What role does technology play in your business?
I try to keep technology’s role as limited and simple as possible as I fundamentally believe this is a people business. I use a smartphone, of course, to communicate with clients at all times, we use social media as a team to build awareness of our brand and what we are doing, and we use basic technology to track our business. Beyond that, we try to keep it quite simple.
6) What are the top tools you couldn’t live without?
My phone and excel.
7) If you could give just one tip to yourself as a new agent, what would it be?
Make marketing and prospecting your business. That is always your main business but more so than ever it is your business to originate business in the beginning. Don’t stop meeting people, following up, and building relationships. Real estate is a contact sport. Business won’t come out of your computer at the office.
8) What’s the best secret strategy you’ve ever discovered?
That there are no secrets. This business is very simple and very hard. Execution is the key.
9) What’s the best way to build a long-lasting client base?
Treat people the way you’d want to be treated and think long term at all times, even if it doesn’t benefit you in the short term.
10) What is the biggest challenge that prevents others from becoming a top producer?
Insufficient leads. Most agents fail because they don’t have enough business. You get enough business by treating your clients well and doing a great job so that they recommend you, marketing like crazy, prospecting like crazy, and always focusing a solid chunk of every day towards generating new business.
11) How do you think mobile devices have changed the real estate marketing world?
On the good side, they have made it much easier to stay in touch with clients and work from anywhere. On the bad side, they have made it such that we are connected at all times, 24/7.
12) How do you think social media has changed the industry?
It was more esoteric years ago but now it is a must. You must be on Facebook and Instagram, and ideally LinkedIn and Twitter as well. It is critical to stay in front of customers, fellow brokers, etc.
13) What’s your best go-to method for selling a listing fast?
Price it correctly and make sure the photos are beautiful.
14) How do you generate new leads?
A million different ways. This is what makes it so challenging. Phone prospecting, in person prospecting, handwritten cards, follow up with past clients, social media, leads through listings, paid online leads, mailings, etc.
15) How do you feel about competition between agents?
Healthy competition is fine as it makes us all better. Unhealthy competition has no place.
16) What’s one technology that doesn’t exist yet that you would love to see emerge in real estate marketing?
Augmented reality is coming.
17) What separates a good agent from a great one?
Too many things to list here.
18) What’s your best advice for marketing real estate services to Millennials?
Speak their language. This holds true for all clients. You wouldn’t call someone at home who wants to receive text messages first and vice versa. You need to be a chameleon (in an honest way) to connect with lots of different clients.
19) What do you think is most important when developing an online real estate marketing presence?
Consistency. Don’t give up. Stick with it every day and build it up over years.
20) What words do you live by?
Yesterday you said tomorrow. Just do it. And stick with it.
21) What’s your endgame? What are you working toward in life/real estate?
Quality of life. Period. End of story. My business is being built to serve my life. It isn’t my life.
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